Domestic Notices : — England. 345 



the bee-garden. Subscriptions to be received by Mr. Kirtland, at the Museum, 

 and at the bank of Messrs. Parsons and Co. 



Persons desirous of becoming members are requested to pay their subscrip- 

 tions as soon as convenient, that the funds which will be at the Society's 

 disposal may be known as soon as possible, as it is desirable to begin opera- 

 tions immediately. (^Advertisement in the Oxford Herald, March 31. 1838.) 



Since the above advertisement appeared, a Society, under the title of the 

 " Oxford Apiarian Society," has been established, and is now flourishing, and 

 the propositions therein made carried into effect. A piece of ground, about 

 half an acre in extent, situate in Bagley Wood, near the river Isis, bounded 

 mostly by willows and elms, has also been taken, and laid out as an experi- 

 mental bee-garden, and opened under the above-mentioned regulations. There 

 are at present twenty-two stocks of bees placed in common straw and experi- 

 mental hives, of various constructions. The kind which, in Oxford, claims 

 the greatest attention is that invented by the author of the pamphlet, A short 

 and simple Letter to Cottagers, sold to cottagers and for distribution at 2d. 

 each, and therein fully illustrated and explained. A quantity of these hives 

 have been made under the inspection of the Society, and may be obtained on 

 application at the Museum, Oxford, price 1/. lOs. Small models, or patterns, 

 to work from, are also to be had at the same place, price 4s. 6^^., for the 

 convenience of country gentlemen or mechanics who may be desirous of 

 making or using this hive. — W. H. B. Oxford, May, 1838. 



Dr. Darwin's Botanical Garden, near Liclifield, was situated at a place 

 called the Abnalls, about a mile north-west of Lichfield. It was established 

 about the year 1777, and continued in his hands as long as he remained 

 in this neighbourhood. On his leaving Lichfield, Mr. Jackson (who, in con- 

 junction with Dr. Darwin and Sir Brooke Boothby, formed a Botanical 

 Society, and produced a translation of the Linncean System of Vegetables, and 

 the Families of Plants, each in two vols. 8vo), a proctor of the ecclesiasti- 

 cal court there, became the proprietor of it, and maintained it on the original 

 plan as long as he lived. At his decease, it passed into other hands, and 

 gradually fell away from its former beauty, until it has at length become a 

 mere wilderness ; the ponds being choked with weeds, the cascades broken 

 down, the walks overgrown with rank grass, and the " trim parterres " con- 

 verted into pasture for cattle. Sometimes, in the spring of the year, one may 

 yet find a stray snowdrop, or a clump of daffodils, which have survived the 

 general wreck ; but these are all that remain to tell of its high and palmy 

 days, when the high-priest of Flora stood surrounded by the blossoms of a 

 thousand climes. At one end of the garden there is an old bath, of cold 

 water, called Urite's Well, built at the recommendation of Sir John Floyer, 

 physician to Charles IL, and formerly in much repute for cold bathing. This 

 has suffered in the general decay : the dressing-room serves the ignominious 

 purposes of a sheep-pen ; the doors are broken down, the windows rifled of 

 their glass, and the fountain itself choked with weeds and rubbish. 



Dr. Harwood, in his History of Lichfield, quotes an inscription, written by 

 Darwin, for the " Naiad of the Fountain." It is as follows : — 



" SPEECH OF A WATER NYMPH. 



" If the meek flower of bashful dye 

 Attract not thy incurious eye, 

 If the soft murmuring rill to rest 

 Encharm not thy tumultuous breast. 

 Go where Ambition lures the vain. 

 Or Avarice barters peace for gain ! " 



In the Phytologia, Darwin writes : " There is a situation where the manner 

 of the production of springs is most agreeably visible : it is about a mile 

 from the city of Lichfield, near the cold bath erected by Sir John Floyer, in 

 a beautiful piece of ground, which was formerly Dr. Darwin's botanic garden. 



